Lowlife were
formed in late 1985 by Stuart Everest (guitar), Will Heggie (bass), Craig Lorenston
(vocals) & Grant McDowall (drums), all of whom had built up a local following
under the name Dead Neighbours.
Taking their name from a PIL song, they signed to Brian Guthrie's "Nightshift"
label, then released their debut mini-album, "Rain", that year. This
was soon followed by the first album proper, "Permanent Sleep" the following
year. Lowlife
were predominately a studio band, taking two to three months recording each album.
Touring was very rare, however the few times they did it was with bands like Johnny
Thunders and the Go-Betweens and it was only to promote a release. In 1990 Everest
& McDowall were replaced by Hugh Dougie (guitar) & Calum MacLean (programming
/ guitar / bass), and the band released their fifth album, "San Antorium".By 1994 MacLean had gone, and they were joined byJennifer Bachen (backing vocals) & Jason Taylor (vocals / guitar, also with Bay), who helped them put together their last album, "Gush".
Nowadays Heggie & McDowell are busy with large families and day jobs. Heggie works as a Process Operative & McDowell is a detective with the Scotland Police. Lorenston is a scaffolder, and Everest is around the Falkirk area working in the audio/visual field.